Moderator Candy Crowley talks about debate on 'The View'

After handling Gov. Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama last night, the five ladies of The View were easy for CNN’s Candy Crowley.

Crowley stopped by the show this morning to discuss the debate. Right away, Barbara Walters asked her about one of the discussion’s buzziest moments, when Mitt Romney was making a point about when the administration labeled the Libya attacks terror attacks, and Obama said it was the day after. Romney disputed this, and Crowley jumped in to agree with the President – you can watch the whole exchange here.

Today, Crowley said she understood some people might see that as siding with the President, but encouraged people to watch the whole conversation. “Right after I said [the comment agreeing with the President], I then said to Romney, ‘You are right,’” she explained. On The View, she clarified that Romney was correct – or at least there was an argument to be made – regarding his larger point, but she was trying to get the discussion to the bigger point about terror, and didn’t want to get bogged down with “semantics.” “[I wanted] to talk about Benghazi and not about the word,” she said. Crowley added: “People are going to look at this through the prism they look at it through.”

She said that while she was wearing an earpiece for the conversation, no one was prompting her about what to say, particularly in that moment. She had a transcript of the President’s Rose Garden remarks in front of her, she said, and that’s why she made her remark. Crowley also explained that if she seemed to be giving more time to Romney toward the end, she was, as producers were telling her during the broadcast that President Obama was talking more. (Overall, Obama talked for 44:04 minutes; Gov. Romney talked for 40:50).

Many, including the View panel, thought that both candidates came off as particularly aggressive during the debate, an opinion Crowley didn’t share. She said she simply thought that these were two men who wanted something very important very badly. “I get that there are high stakes here,” she said.